Dark's Daughter
by Buttercup3
Summary: This story should be read after Buttercup's Baby. It explains the existance of Atlantis.
1. Default Chapter

"We have all wondered about the origin of that mysterious underwater city, Atlantis," began the storyteller. "It was founded centuries ago, then lost and forgotten by even the gods- except for the Sea Goddess, for it became her own when it sank beneath the waves into her kingdom. It can be found west of Lacar, for Naroai drove them far from their destination while herding them to her place of power. Listen, then, to the sad story of a noblewoman of Cranan and those nearly doomed by her pride and arrogance."  
~~~ Blood stained the decks of the two warring fleets. The pirates were motivated and skilled, but they had only three mages in their whole fleet, while the fleet of colonists had more than one hundred Chosen. Ragachi's children ran busily across the decks, grabbing at the bewildered souls of newly dead colonists and sailors to keep them from harm before they could be transported to the underworld. The colonists were children of Cranan, who were to settle on Oak Island. They had very few valuables on them. They had not stumbled upon some secret treasure cache of the pirates. They had not killed any of the pirates kin, had not forgotten to sacrifice to their goddess. There was one reason why the pirates were attacking, and one reason only: their goddess had ordered them to. For on one of the ships was Brianna of Amarath, leader of the fleet and daughter of a Duchess of Cranan. Brianna had always diligently prayed to Vashka and been properly humble. But she had been marked from birth by Vashka, for she was the great-great granddaughter of the God of Dark, Vashka's husband. While in her homeland of Cranan, her remaining godly blood protected her from any interference, even that of a goddess. But when she left Cranan, she was fair game for the jealous Vashka. The pirates had killed more than a hundred colonists, while only fifty of their number lay wounded. But for every colonist that fell, three more rose to take their place. The pirates were greatly outnumbered, and they knew that their mission was suicide. Had their goddess Vashka not given them an ultimatum, they would not even have attempted it. "Kill Brianna, daughter of Amarath, Chosen of War, or die trying." And they would, for when the Pirate Goddess issued an ultimatum through the Pirate Queen, no one dared disobey. Just as it was beginning to look as though the pointless slaughter would continue, with the pirates stubbornly trying to find and kill one noblewoman while battling triple their number of untrained but determined colonists, when Naroai, goddess of the sea, stepped in. She sent one of her great sea serpents, Thranath her own pet, to end the carnage. The serpent, finally unleashed from his orders not to kill humans, went to his work with a will. He chomped the pirates by the dozen, broke ships easily in twain with single swipes of his huge tail, dove beneath the water and capsized the boats. Between the colonists and the great snake, not a single pirate survived the battle. And in her godly paradise, Vashka howled in fury. Thranath was well pleased with himself. He turned to make sure that the fleet of colonists was safe, for this was what his mistress had instructed him to do: keep the children of Cranan safe. The colonists, fearing the great serpent and suspicious of anything they could not understand, attacked. One woman, in gleaming armor and with hair of gold, stood at the bow of the foremost ship, bow strung and arrow ready on the string. As the confused snake watched, she began to chant. When he saw her sword begin to glow blood red, the serpent understood and tried to flee, but it was too late. The enchanted arrow pierced the loyal creature's heart, killing him instantly. The foolish Crananians, frightened, began to celebrate. Brianna, for it was she who had killed Naroai's serpent, basked in their adoration. Only five people were not cheering. Two men, two women, and a young girl stood crying for the serpent's death. All wore the badge of the Chosen of Naroai. "Children of Naroai, why do you mourn?" cried the exuberant Brianna. The colonists grew tense, frightened, for while they admired their leader, she was not respected for her brains. Lornath was, and he was one of the five weepers. If he wept, doubtless he had good reason. "You have, Brianna, acted as rashly and as foolishly as ever has a human. Had you stopped for a mere instant, simply used your brains instead of your brawn, you would have realized that the serpent protected us from the pirate fleet. He should have been praised, not murdered! My mistress, the sea goddess Naroai, sent him to help us, for she saw our plight and was sympathetic. Her sympathy is gone now, and hatred has replaced it. You have replaced the wrath of one goddess for the blind hatred of a much more powerful one. Never anger the goddess of sea and sorrow when traveling on ships." Lornath paused, and it seemed he was listening. The presence of a goddess was felt, ever so slightly, by those near him, and all knew that she was speaking to her child. "What must we do?" inquired Brianna timidly. Her courage, though inexhaustible when it came to battles and wars, was expended quite quickly when dealing with the goddess of the sea. Lornath looked at her with an odd look of compassion in his eyes, then turned from her to Taka, her second-in-command. "You must sacrifice Brianna to Naroai and throw her body into the sea, for only then will the goddess be appeased. Fail to do this and she shall sink your entire fleet of ships." Taka looked at Brianna, who cried, "Never! I respect your patron goddess, but I shall not give her my life, and the others would not dare to contest the will of the daughter of the duchess of Amarath." And it was true, so no one spoke up to plead for their lives. "Then we five shall leave you now, for we shall be spared the wrath of our Lady." Lornath's voice softened. "I am sorry for you, for Naroai is also the goddess of sorrow and her sorrow is as deep and as wide as the sea." And with that Lornath and the other four of Naroai's children jumped off the boat. When people shouted and looked for their bodies in the water, they saw that the hand of their goddess had caught them before they hit the sea and was rapidly whisking them away to Cranan and safety. Barely were they out of sight when the skies began to darken and the seas grew wild. Shaking with fear, the colonists began the race to land, trying to outrun the goddess's boundless anger. 


	2. Chapter 2

"Land ho!" shouted a sailor in the crows nest, relief making his voice hoarse. They sailed towards it and reached it in a few hours. But it was a mere barren island, with no shelter, and lightning bolts were beginning to strike down dangerously close to the colonist's ships.  
"Look!" shouted Brianna, "there are caves!" And indeed, the cliffs facing the sea were riddled with caves.  
Hurrying, the colonists secured the ships and ran for the caves. More than a hundred had already been lost to the lightning and the pounding surf, and it was too dangerous to turn back for the stragglers struggling to reach land; Naroai had more than one great serpent, and the lady serpent was perturbed by the loss of her mate.  
Finally they reached the caves, and all piled into the largest of them. If they had numbered as many as they had before they brought down the wrath of the sea goddess, they would never have fit into the cave; as it was, they were nearly overflowing the cave.  
Fathers and mother began to administer to their frightened children, and other rocked sobbing against the walls, mourning their dead.  
Sitting in the darkened corner farthest from the entrance, the leaders of the colonists held a council. Brianna, head mage and Duchess, presided. Ronald and the other four captains of their small fleet were present. Randal stood for the soldiers, and Taka represented the civilians.  
"What can we do?" asked Brianna. "I must confess, I am at a loss for ideas. If anyone has any suggestions, please, speak up."  
"I have no suggestions, but I wanted to discuss something that has been bothering me," ventured Merna, the captain of the third largest ship. "It seemed to me to be too easy, how we reached here despite the wrath of the sea goddess."  
"Nonsense, you thought that was easy, so many died." began Brianna. But the other four captains had begun to nod agreement with Merna, and Brianna was not so arrogant as to not take a sailor's word on matters concerning the sea.  
"Umm.you think it was too easy?" Taka inquired. "Why?"  
"I have seen storms as bad and survived them, and those were natural, not caused by the goddess of the sea," continued Merna. "If Naroai was truly trying to kill us, surely she would have succeeded long before we saw this island."  
"What are you saying?" asked Brianna.  
Merna hesitated, then blurted, "I believe that she wanted us to hide in these caves."  
"Quite right," a new voice intoned. A woman had somehow entered the cave. She glowed faintly, and the smell of the sea clung to her like perfume. She smiled, and in that beautiful smile was something as cruel and as treacherous as the sea.  
"Goddess," exclaimed Brianna, jumping to her feet in respect. All around the cave people were quieting and watching the two women, one mortal and foolish, one immortal and perfect, and wished that it was the goddess and not their formerly beloved Duchess Brianna who was on their side. Once they had thought Brianna to be invincible. Now, standing beside the goddess with the beauty of the sea and the compassion of one who has seen much sorrow, she seemed flawed, like a garnet which loses its appeal when placed next to a ruby.  
"I have named my price for your lives, and now I should think you would be more inclined to agree after the tragic loss of so many of your number." The goddess smiled, and now the smile was sheer malice, not even a hint of beauty. "You killed my darling pet," she accused, and in a lesser being her voice might be descibed as a hiss, "and I WILL have my revenge." Then she regained her control and her voice once again took on the tone of sweet reason. "You have payed in blood, and now all I require is the death of the one who killed my serpent. You cannot escape this island; your ships have been reduced to mere kindling, my dead pet's mate patrols the waters with their children. You will die here of starvation; or, if not, I will grow tired of watching you feed off each other and bring the sea up to flood these caves. You have no alternative."  
They tried many things. First they had the remaining eighty Chosen reach out to request help from their gods. But as it turned out, Naroai HAD been herding them to this island, for this was her sacred island where her will took precedence even over the six Great Gods.  
Brianna contacted her great-great grandfather, the God of Dark. And the Evil One would've saved her (even the god of Dark knows what is owed to family), but he had no power on Naroai's sacred ground.  
But the colonists would not sacrifice one of their nobility cruelly, even for the pleasure of a goddess and even though the Duchess had failed to do her duty. As Naroai watched in pleasure, they bound the woman to an alter of coral and a priest stood before her. But to the goddess's fury, the priest killed her in the most painless matter possible; for he was a child of Ragachi, and he leached out her soul and cradled it gently to him until he could give it to his master's wife, goddess of the underworld, there to be kept in honor. Because for all her shortcomings, Brianna had been right; the people would never kill a member of the Crananian nobility without her consent. And to save her people, she died.  
But Naroai had wanted pain and blood, so she cried out in a divine voice painful to the ears of mortals, "You tricked me, but two can play that game. I said that you would be safely delievered to the place that you would colonize, and so you shall be. But you shall be mine now, a colony of Naroai's, and your city shall be under the sea!" And she sank the island, and all the people on it. But she enclosed it in an air bubble, and in that bubble, at the bottom of the sea to the northwest of the faerie kingdom of Lacar, Atlantis was born. And in time the colonists grew used to their underwater city, even grew to like it, and began to think of themselves as Atlantians instead of Crananians.  
~~~ "And Vashka was happy, for she had in the end seen Brianna die. But she did not know about Brianna's illegitimate daughter, who survived and was raised by Taka. And to this day a drop of the Evil One's blood can be found in the lost colony of Atlantis. But that is a tale for another day. 


End file.
